More than fifty websites, blogs and microblog accounts have been shut down over the past week in China, not a huge number right? it is if your a pornster in China, in it’s latest round of crackdowns on online porn the government’s State Internet Information Office – SIIO – said the websites were closed for posting pornographic images, articles, films, amateur videos, online ads for prostitutes.

The SIIO was setup in May 2011, and is the online branch of the überpowerful State Council Information Office, the communist states censorship office. China’s Internet, with the world’s largest number of users – more than 450 million – is a booming industry, attracting investors and government agencies hoping for a stake in online revenues through licensing and regulation.

The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said Tuesday that nearly 1.8 million websites had been checked since the launch of the campaign, and 2,195 cases of dissemination of online pornography have been dealt with.

The office received more than 160,000 porn-related tip-offs from the general public and paid out about more than $AU75,000/¥500,000 to around 5oo informants. Companies and government departments also joined in the campaign. As part of the sting, China Mobile organized 20 employees – mothers of teenagers – to assist with monitoring and reporting mobile sites :: Read the full article »»»»

Not that we’re suggesting that government moves in slow and mysterious ways BUT! Way back in July last year we noted: After almost three years of public consultation and industry wide debate, the introduction of an R18+ classification for video games in Australia is teatering on the line. It looks as though it may go through however it’s been delayed once more due to the failure of federal, state and territory attorneys-general to reach a unanimous decision!?

Happily – don’thold your breath, it might be another 3 years until the legislation is passed – the Australian Federal Government has at last introduced legislation to establish an R18+ category for computer and video games in Australia. Currently in Australia, the maximum legal classification for games is MA15+. Games that are not considered suitable for children are refused classification and banned.

Way back in 2009, the Government received close to 60,000 submissions in response to a discussion paper on the matter. The Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare says the legislation is scheduled to come into effect at the start of next year. This will bring the classification categories for computer games into line with existing categories used to classify films and make the Australian classification regime more consistent with international standards,” he said.

A national telephone survey conducted by Galaxy in 2010 showed 80 per cent of the 2,226 people contacted said they supported the introduction of an adults-only category for games. No Sh_t Sherlock!

Übermicroblog, Twitter has announced that it will begin restricting tweets in certain countries, marking a dramatic policy shift for the site.

The site said even with the possibility of such restrictions, Twitter would not be able to coexist with some countries.

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” Twitter wrote in a blog post. “Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there,” it said.

Twitter gave as examples of restrictions it might cooperate with “certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content”.

A Twitter spokesperson declined to elaborate on the blog. “Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world,” the Twitter blog said.

Twitter’s decision to begin censoring content represents a significant departure from its policy of just one year ago, when anti-government protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries coordinated mass demonstrations through the microblog and, in turn, thrust Twitter’s disruptive potential into the global spotlight.

As the revolutions brewed last January, Twitter signalled it would take a hands-off approach to censoring content in a blog post entitled The Tweets Must Flow :: Read the full article »»»»

Beijing city authorities on Friday issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government tightens its grip on the internet.

The city government now requires users of weibos – the Chinese version of Twitter – to give their real names to website administrators, its official news portal said.

The new rules will apply to weibo operators based in Beijing, which include Sina – owner of China’s most popular microblogging service which has more than 200 million users – as well as users living in the Chinese capital.

Weibo users reacted angrily to the new rules, saying this was an attempt to muzzle online criticism and debate.

“It is good to be responsible for one’s own comments but it shouldn’t be used as a tool to suppress people’s rights,” a blogger called Yuyue Yuanfei Ilu said in a posting :: Read the full article »»»»